I have the argument on both sides. Without much of a barrier, anyone ca publish a youtube video, an ebook, record a song, etc. Having a middle layer between content creator and consumer can both block things that they don't like, but also filter out the crap.

I have played great mobile games, like the tactical game Kingturn (a medieval ersion of Advanced Wars). My beef right now is that the devices and games can only be used in the now, not 5 years later.

scotland wrote:I have the argument on both sides. Without much of a barrier, anyone ca publish a youtube video, an ebook, record a song, etc. Having a middle layer between content creator and consumer can both block things that they don't like, but also filter out the crap.

I have played great mobile games, like the tactical game Kingturn (a medieval ersion of Advanced Wars). My beef right now is that the devices and games can only be used in the now, not 5 years later.

Absolutely. Look at music. Before the internet, the record labels fed the public the next rock stars. If they thought Kiss or Green Day or whoever would be big, they would make sure these bands were all on the radio and in record stores. You were spoon fed the next big thing. Good luck finding any info on underground bands back then.

Now, with the internet, you don't need the middle man. You can go on streaming sites and find and discover any band you want! Of course, like mobile games, there is lots of crap, but there is lots of good stuff just waiting to be discovered.

Thats not wholly true of music. The labels tried to feed kids white guys like Pat Bokne doing covers of black artists songs, but kids wanted the originals. MTV didn't really want Micheal Jackson for a time. Wolfman Jack made his name because hhis station was the end around labels too. Wasn't Motown kinda doing an end around white controlled labels?

Mobile gaming never really did it for me, only because of the platform it is on. I don’t find gaming on a phone to be all that fun, because of all the “distractions.” I never really thought of a phone as a gaming device, especially for “larger scale” games. It’s fine for stuff like smaller puzzle games, but it seems like it would be hard to more heavily-involved games, especially on the same device you use to check e-mail, social media, youtube, etc.